A method for recovering valuable metals and simultaneously preparing ceramsite by roasting cyanide tailing belongs to the area of comprehensive recovery and high value utilization of metallurgical waste residue. In this method, cyanide tailings, bentonite, calcium chloride, coal powder and albite are mixed by ball milling according to certain weight ratio to get a mixture. After drying and roasting twice, dust is collected from the roasted ash, the obtained polymetallic ash is collected and treated. The secondary calcined material is cooled to obtain ceramsite. The invention volatilizes and recovers the valuable metal in the roasting and sintering process of cyanide tailings and directly prepares the ceramsite through reasonable batching, which achieves the effect of recycling cyanide tailings and high-value utilization, can create good economic and environmental benefits, and has significant effect of energy saving and consumption reduction.

Provided are a noble metal adsorbent, a method for recovering a noble metal, and a method for regenerating a noble metal adsorbent that can easily recover noble metal while high adsorption performance for noble metals is achieved. The noble metal adsorbent according to the present invention includes a metal sulfide. The metal sulfide is constituted of, for example, molybdenum disulfide particles. The method for recovering a noble metal according to the present invention includes adsorbing a noble metal onto the noble metal adsorbent, and thereafter heating and volatilizing the noble metal adsorbent in the presence of oxygen to recover the noble metal.

Processes for the production of platinum group metal (PGM)-enriched alloys are described. The PGM enriched-alloys can have 0 to 60 wt.-% of iron and 20 to 99 wt.-% of one or more PGMs selected from the group consisting of platinum, palladium and rhodium. The described processes exhibit remarkably low PGM losses during production of PGM-enriched alloys therefore yield alloys having considerably high PGM levels.

Process for removing inorganically- and/or organically-bound carbon from a precious metal-containing composition inside an oven chamber comprising at least one direct burner and at least one exhaust gas conduit, characterised by the sequence of steps of: a) providing a precious metal-containing composition comprising fractions of inorganically- and/or organically-bound carbon inside the oven chamber; b) closing the oven chamber; c) heating the content of the oven chamber by means of at least one direct burner in order to establish a temperature T1 in the range of 450 C. to 1,000 C. and maintaining temperature T1 for 5 min-48 h; whereby, once the oven chamber is closed, any gas exchange between the oven chamber and the surroundings can take place only via the at least one direct burner and the at least one exhaust gas conduit.

A process for the production of a PGM-enriched alloy comprising 0 to 60 wt.-% of iron and 20 to 99 wt.-% of one or more PGMs selected from the group consisting of platinum, palladium and rhodium, the process comprising the steps of (1) providing a PGM collector alloy comprising 30 to 95 wt.-% of iron, less than 1 wt.-% of sulfur and 2 to 15 wt.-% of one or more PGMs selected from the group consisting of platinum, palladium and rhodium, (2) providing a copper- and sulfur-free material capable of forming a slag-like composition when molten, wherein the molten slag-like composition comprises 40 to 90 wt.-% of magnesium oxide and/or calcium oxide and 10 to 60 wt.-% of silicon dioxide, (3) melting the PGM collector alloy and the material capable of forming a slag-like composition when molten in a weight ratio of 1:0.2 to 1 within a converter until a multi- or two-phase system of a lower high-density molten mass comprising the molten PGM collector alloy and one or more upper low-density molten masses comprising the molten slag-like composition has formed, (4) contacting an oxidizing gas comprising 0 to 80 vol.-% of inert gas and 20 to 100 vol.-% of oxygen with the lower high-density molten mass obtained in step (3) until it has been converted into a lower high-density molten mass of the PGM-enriched alloy, (5) separating an upper low-density molten slag formed in the course of step (4) from the lower high-density molten mass of the PGM-enriched alloy making use of the difference in density, (6) letting the molten masses separated from one another cool down and solidify, and (7) collecting the solidified PGM-enriched alloy.

The value-minerals are captured by gravity-separation, from a low-grade slurry. The ratio of liquids-to-solids in the slurry affects the efficiency of capture, and an ideal liquids/solids ratio is the ratio at which the efficiency of capture is at a maximum. The ideal ratio is different for different particle-sizes. The procedure includes dewatering the slurry, dividing the dry particles by particle-size, and feeding the several size-divided dry-streams into respective capture-stations. Prior to each dry-stream entering its respective capture-station, make-up water is added to the dry-stream in such quantity as to bring the liquids/solids ratio up to the ideal, for that particle-size. The procedure makes it simple to provide accurate measurement of, and accurate control of, the liquids/solids ratio.

The present invention relates to a technique for recovering and recycling a platinum paste. The present invention provides a method for recovering a metal powder from a platinum paste formed by mixing a solid component composed of a metal powder including at least a platinum powder or a platinum alloy powder and an organic component including at least an organic solvent, the method including removing the organic component by heating the platinum paste at a recovery temperature set in a temperature range of 300 C. or higher and 500 C. or lower. The recovered metal powder can be recycled into a platinum paste equivalent to a new product by mixing the metal powder with a solvent etc.

A method for producing a collector alloy comprising 25 to 100 wt % precious metal in total, comprising 0 to <97 wt % of the precious metal silver, 0 to 75 wt % of at least one precious metal selected from gold, platinum, rhodium and palladium, and 0 to 75 wt % of at least one non-precious metal selected from copper, iron, tin and nickel, or for producing pure silver, comprising the steps of: (1) providing precious metal sweeps; (2) providing a flux which, during collective melting with the refractory inorganic material from the precious metal sweeps provided in step (1); (3) collective melting of the materials provided in steps (1) and (2) at a temperature in the range of from 1300 to 1600 C., forming a melt comprising at least two phases of different densities arranged one above the other; and, (4) separating the upper phase and the lower phase.

Provided is a platinum-group metal recovery method for efficiently recovering a platinum-group metal. The method for recovering a platinum-group metal includes an immobilization step of causing a molten product of a raw material containing a platinum-group metal, a molten product of a carbonate or hydroxide of an alkali metal, a molten product of an oxide, and a ceramic material to make contact with each other so as to immobilize the platinum-group metal on the ceramic material.